Monday, April 30, 2012

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience."-Letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell a few months after the release of 1984The full letter may be read here:http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/...

This was by all means a stain on the dystopian genre. The very essence of dystopias to explain what could possibly and realistically happen to us. To say The Hunger Games could happen denies basic human psychology. (I explained mostly in my last review, which is found here: http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/201... ) The only meaning of this book is to entertain people. Huxley warned us the things we love would eventually lead us to our downfall. Brave New World is commonly labelled "boring" and a "painful read", yet The Hunger Games is "exciting" and a book "that can't be put down". THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ENJOYING A BOOK, Huxley understands that. He himself enjoyed reading. However, he also knew that politics could not be ignored. Eighty years ago, he saw into the future. People would be able to have more time to enjoy things, which is good, but if they weren't careful they would destroy us. The Hunger Games trilogy is a perfect example of this. If THG didn't go around saying it had a great political message or that it was a dystopia, all would be fine and dandy. When THG says it is a dystopia and has a great political message, that's when we have a problem.I tried to find a political message, and I got this:-Be glad you don't live under a Big Brother government.Yes, that was all I got. However, there was nothing about preventing the Big Brother government, just be glad you aren't in one. That was the closest thing I got to a political message. I guess you could add "be glad you aren't going hungry", but many kids in good ol' US of A are hungry.To Miss Collins, people being thrown into an arena and being forced to kill each other is a big political problem we face today. That happens a lot, doesn't it?I'll explain a little further: I am a lesbian. I face constant fear of being discovered for who I am committing suicide yet again.I have friends who are not lucky like me to be white, and thus a crime can be committed against them and more than often it can be gotten away with. Yes, Zimmerman was prosecuted, but not every non-white person is lucky enough to get their murder charged. Many people of different races will never be lucky enough to have their murderer's prosecuted.I have a few trans* friends, and I know of the struggles they face. Large amounts of violence has been had against trans* women (and men, but mainly women) as of late, for example against Paige Clay. I fear for the trans* women (and men) who are even unluckier than me, even when my identity is constantly stigmatized.I fear for the young trans* men who are forced to swallow paint thinner because they do not have the access to safe, legal abortion like I do.I fear for the people who aren't in my country who face many struggles. I know the privilege I have, and I do my best to educate myself on it.The things I and other stigmatized people face today are far more relevant than people being forced to kill each other for entertainment. Miss Collins does not explain anything about gays, trans* people, how racism or classism works, ableism, abortion, or even religion works in her world. Though there are dark skinned characters, does that mean racism has been eradicated? How are gays treated? Trans* people? What about people with disabilities? Are the struggles of these stigmatized people worse? What about gender equality and gender roles?Calling something you find "cool" or a "fast read" that lacks political messages as having one, that is what Huxley feared. We wouldn't be denied our political knowledge, but they would be drowned out by other things. We would have knowledge, but we wouldn't care about it. The struggles of people would be ignored for a forced love triangle, cheap action, and very important issues would be ignored to discuss bird costumes. No one would either care or notice, maybe both. Huxley feared what we loved would kill us, and his fear has come true. He knew people being thrown into an arena is not something that could convey a true political message at the time, and it rings true today. What Huxley did not realize that when he stated that our pleasures would doom us was not just into our daily lives, but into books that claim that they somehow are reflecting our lives and struggles. Brave New World will be placed next to The Hunger Games as a great book of political messages. One will have a message that forever rings true, while another, if not actively analyzed, will contribute to keeping the message unheard and what it warned against will continue standing strong.This is why I won't even bother with two stars.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I'm glad to know there is a chance for me to sloppily rewrite a former book of mine and get it published. I can be extremely hateful to someone's personal situation, lack originality, and have page after page of angst. That's Born At Midnight.

I may as well summarize this up: Kylie was caught at a party that had drugs. Her parents are divorcing, so they send her to Shadow Falls summer camp, a camp for "troubled teens". It turns out these troubled teens are actually not troubled teens, but paranormal creatures. Kylie wants to deny it, but she too is a paranormal creature.

Let me tell you about a YA novel I once tried to write before I realized what shit it was. It involved:

-Vampires (An entire school just for them)

-Angst

-Scenes where you wish something would fucking happen already

-Forced Romance

But there was one catch to this! The romance was gay! There were a bunch of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans* vampires! (I'm serious, I was going to have at least one of every letter of the LGBT acronym.) Before I realized it sucked, I thought it was genius. Not only were the vampires not going to all be straight, but they were not all going to be white, either! I didn't get that far in the book, but the main character's love interest was Native American. There would have been more characters who weren't white later on, but I didn't get very far.

Anyway, if I did want to rewrite it, I'd have to throw around a few terms offensive to the LGBT community, make every fucking one straight, and have a token non-white character. I'd also have to mock someone with a serious medical condition. Cause that's perfectly fine, right guys?

So, let's first look at the book's romances so we can get them done with. Enter Jerk One, Trey.

Trey: Sleep with me.

Kylie:

So Trey goes and get's a girl who will sleep with him. It is bad, but so is calling the girl a slut multiple times.

Enter Derek to stage right.

Derek: "I'm Fae."

Kylie: "Oh so cool. He must say Fae cause any guy who's Fae that calls himself 'fairy' must be gay. I mean, look at how he walks. He so doesn't walk gay."

Derek: "I have this weird thing with emotions."

Kylie: "So you can manipulate girls to, you know?"

Derek: "I only used them to get a girl to notice me. If I used them to sleep with her, that'd be rape."

Lucas: "I know I killed your cat, but I protected you from bullies. Also, I'm sexy, so love me."

Kylie: "Oh what to do? So sexy, but kitty."

Lucas: "I got you a new cat."

Kylie: "Yay, I love you."

That is the romance in a nutshell.

So, let's discuss why this book is so bigoted.

Sarah is a slut. She's slept with three, possibly five guys. She had a pregnancy scare and might not get an abortion. She can flirt easily with guys.

And Kylie knows when to tell a boy to stop, she's still a virgin, and she can't flirt easily. Clearly we should sympathize with her.

I. Just. Can't.

It is perfectly acceptable to ignore the gay subculture of bears because clearly gay guys must be feminine. They MUST walk a certain way.

You see those guys? They're clearly not gay because they aren't feminine.

Also, it's perfectly fine to use "gay" as an insult. Because clearly when a guy vampire bites another guy by the neck to turn him it's because he's gay and not because he's a fucking vampire.

Why am I so mad at the throwing around of gay? I get enough shit for being a lesbian that I have every right to be mad at people who throw around words like "lesbo", "gay", "fag", and "tranny" (I'm not trans*, but I have many trans* friends). Those words are never, ever OK.

Now do any of your relatives/friends have brain tumors? Have they died from it? Well, it's not nearly as bad as being a vampire or fairy. Sure you can live one hundred to five hundred years as a paranormal creature, but OMG! They're freaks! It's way better to die a horrible death than to be a freak!

I just can't. This is offensive beyond reason.

I reread this. It was so bad that it was even worse than last year when I first read it. What compelled me to reread it. . .

The world may never know.

I also only made it through about 160 pages before skimming the rest.

HOW DO YOU SNEAK A LION INTO A CAMP? Seriously.

It was also offensive how it was said paranormals caused The Civil War. I just can't understand what the author thought. Then WWII was added as a possibility. . . How is this book published?

And that is my jumbled review of this book, almost as jumbled as this book. Amaingly, I'm rereading another book, one I am determined to finish.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I reread this to understand my true feelings on this book. It has lost one star, going from three to two. It's not that this book was awful, but nothing close to the hype.
Nikki has returned to Earth after spending six months (a century in Everneath time) in the Everneath. She wants to say goodbye to her family and friends, having pretty much ruined her goodbye before she left for the Everneath. She's hoping she can reconcile with her family and friends, but it may not be working as she hoped.
Nikki was no one special to me. She had no hobbies, no real quality to her. Did she lose her hobbies in the Everneath? But even before the Feed, she didn't seem to have anything she liked to do. I kept questioning how she spent her time when she wasn't at the Soup Kitchen, doing homework, helping her Dad, or with her friends. She had to have had some free time. She didn't even miss school once, which struck me as odd. I just couldn't see her as a fully rounded person. I also couldn't understand why she didn't accept Cole's offer, considering how much she loved the Fields, and she hadn't liked Cole showing her the Tunnels.
Jack was also pretty bland. He was a very boring love interest. I just couldn't see what he and Nikki saw in each other. We were told they were in love, but never did I EVER feel it.
Cole was a very unrealistic and uninteresting villain. If his band is so famous, how was he able to stay in a small town for so long without millions of people flocking to see his band? If he knew Nikki would never go to the Everneath with him, why did he bother to stay? Why didn't he just force Nikki to go to the Everneath with him? The only real thing I saw in him was that his feelings for Nikki seemed a little more real than Jack's, although both feelings for her were forced.
The other characters had no real development, simply background characters that existed. Of course, it's not say Nikki, Jack, and Cole had great character development, because they did not.
If the book had spent less time focusing on the relationship between Nikki and Cole, and more on the Everneath, I think I would have liked the book better. Nikki seemed very distant to me, and it was unrealistic that she showed no real fear to the Everneath. Fear should have been an easy emotion for her to get back.

Now, let's get into the failure that was the mythology.
First up, would your soul remain in the Everneath?
Were there others who had anchors?
What if Nikki committed suicide while on Earth? Would she escape the Everneath's clutches?
WHY IN THE FUCK IS THEIR EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY IN A BOOK ABOUT GREEK MYTHOLOGY? I won't even begin to try to understand that, or else my poor brain will explode.
Also, wouldn't someone eventually find out about the Daughters of Persephone? The kids sound emotionally neglected, so wouldn't one of them eventually crack? What if a Daughter of Persephone committed suicide beforehand? Can a son be given as a Forfeit for the Everneath?
And wouldn't the Everneath be discovered if someone noticed someone go under? What if they say the thing that took Meredith away back to the Everneath? The author tries to make the Everneath sound unknown, but she failed at it.
Her English teacher remarked not knowing Persephone had any daughters, but in Greek mythology Persephone did. Her daughter was Melinoe, and her father was Zeus. Zeus tricked Persephone into sleeping with him because he disguised himself as Hades. It is suggested by others that Hades is Melinoe's father, though. The author obviously skipped some research.

The book kept me reading, but the writing wasn't amazing. This wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't great. Read this only if you want to. I don't regret buying it, but when I read the next book in the series (I will read it), I won't buy it. I honestly can't see where the series is going.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Hey guys, I haven't written a review in a while, so I'm going to do one now, and will be doing many more in the future. I have finally woken up from my hibernation.

This book was a product of the YA market. It had the regular YA feel with the pretty girl in dress cover, the average undeveloped romance, and the bland heroine and hero. It also had vampires, er, demons.
I originally promised myself that I wouldn't read this, knowing it'd be a mythology fail. I was right on target when I thought that many months ago. It was hard to get through, involving me rolling my eyes through what must have been the entire book.
So, let's start first with my feelings on the characters. Nothing seemed really significant about the characters. Daphne and Truman both bored me to tears, their romance fake. The other demons weren't very interesting beyond Beelzeebub and Obie, but they rarely had their time to shine. No, we had to hear about Daphne and Truman.
I don't buy that Daphne couldn't be destroyed; it had special snowflake written all over it.
What the hell did Daphne see in Truman? Sure they were more or less partners in crime, but in love? No.
I hated being in Truman's head. He was very dull, the chapters centered in his mind seeming unneeded, nothing more than extra pages. I never felt anything for him, not for his mother dying, his relationship to his Dad, and not even when he was getting wasted and trying to commit suicide. I just read through his parts, not even hoping it'd get better.
Daphne's sisters were obviously meant to be sluts. Daphne not wanting to be sluts like them, going from guy to guy to guy to guy, was obvious slut-shaming, and it was not OK. Daphne was also a special snowflake. (Wait, so were Daphne and Truman in love because they were both specshool widdle snowflakz?)

Now, let's get onto the mythology. I may get something wrong, and please do point out so, because I only know the Protestant Bible of no particular denomination. There may only be parts specific to Catholicism in this book (and some I was able to understand, others I may not have), so I'll mostly be saying stuff that leans toward Protestantism.
The Hell made of metal? No, the Catholics don't even have that. The Catholics go back 200 years, back when metal cities would have been stories you told children at best.
The demons having fun in Hell? No, Hell is for suffering.
The human stuff in Hell? The Bible states you can take nothing with you when you die, so I'm sure this wouldn't work if a human can bring nothing to Hell.
Basically, why aren't all the demons in Hell suffering? Most of this had nothing to do with mythology and what the Bible says, instead stemming from the authors imagination. The Garden scene I am sure was entirely the author's imagination.
Hell, the author even made Lucifer seem like a good guy. I just can't understand this book. Time and time again I thought of giving up and putting the book down.

The book was somewhat good in the last seventy to fifty pages, though it isn't enough to earn this book another star. It may have to do with my lack of knowledge in Catholicism, or maybe my wish for there to be gore, but it honestly didn't keep me reading. The book just barely picked itself up off the ground, but it so little off the ground you could say the book was still lying in the dirt.

The metal part wasn't even very original, as it reminded me of a book in The Spiderwick Chronicles where some sort of creature (though I can't remember what) wanted to turn the world to metal. The creatures didn't need to breathe. They even froze the girl character in a coffin to look pretty. So it too had pretty girl on cover.

This book was lacking in many, many things. This is my first review in a while, so it may not be as well written as others. I'm usually good at writing reviews for bad books, but this. . . Well, I'm reading Everneath next, and let's hope it's worth at least the three stars I gave it before.

I just want to say before you read this, my friend and I are going to go see The Hunger Games in theaters this week. Why? Because my Mom says I need to get my lazy ass off the computer and go be social. That, and because I want to play Pokemon with my friend. My friend didn't like THG either, but she wants to see the movie because she thinks it looks good. I'll go because the movie theater is dark enough that I can sleep in it. And we're definitely going on a week day, hopefully during the average person's work hour. It's Spring Break, but I hope large amounts of people are gone.

So, on with the review.

The Hunger Games has a great political message:

The Hunger Games is a plausible dystopia:

The Hunger Games is right up there with Brave New World, Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale, Animal Farm, and 1984:

Everyone just LUVZ The Hunger Games:

The Hunger Games didn't copy off Battle Royale:

I just can't believe there isn't some sort of link between the two.

The Hunger Games really reflects us as a society:

We can all learn something from The Hunger Games:

The Hunger Games doesn't deny science, basic human psychology, and how a society works (you'll definitely have to refer to my original review):

But Rue wuz wyte! D':

No you idiots, she was literally described as black in the books. I don't care how you personally saw her, but she was described as black. How you saw her doesn't change the fact that she was black.

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Hi, my name is Katherine. I am a left wing, pro-choice feminist. I am also a teenager who refuses to be judged by my age. You're never too young to be a feminist. Reading is a hobby of mine and I mostly read YA lit, but also the seldom adult or picture book. I have high standards in books, especially in science fiction.